South Florida Cubans, officials react to Raul Castro indictment outside Freedom Tower

MIAMI — Miami’s Freedom Tower has been a beacon of hope and freedom for members of South Florida’s Cuban American exile community.

Read more Deputies ID suspect accused of stabbing man in Deerfield Beach

Leer en español

Amid rising tensions between Cuba and the United States, the Department of Justice announced an indictment against Cuban communist leader Raul Castro.

“It sends the right message, not only to us, but to the opposition inside Cuba,” said Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez.

The indictment comes in connection with the deadly Brothers to the Rescue plane shootdown in 1996.

“That massacre is an open wound in this community because four young, idealistic men who were known for their hard work and their seriousness were killed for trying to save the lives of others,” said Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat with the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance.

According to Brothers to the Rescue founder Jose Basulto, audio recordings of Raul Castro, who was then head of Cuba’s military, show him ordering the attack on the humanitarian group’s planes as they searched to help Cubans at sea fleeing the communist island.

Read more U.S. indicts Raúl Castro over 1996 fatal shootdown of Brothers to the Rescue planes

“We were attacked by Cuban MiGs,” said Basulto.

A MiG is a Soviet-designed Mikoyan-Gurevich fighter jet.

“It means a lot to me as a Cuban American because justice will finally be done,” said Bermudez, who was friends with Mario De La Pena, one of the four men killed in the Cuban attack.

“Died at a very young age, 25 years old,” said Bermudez. “It was a crime committed by the Cuban government.”

The indictment comes as Cuban democracy advocates remain steadfast in their decades-long quest for transition in Cuba from dictatorship to democracy.

“The indictment is a very important step, but of course the end goal here is the return of sovereignty to the Cuban people,” said Gutierrez-Boronat.

Read more 1 dead after Tri-Rail train collides with SUV in Oakland Park